First, I am not a very social person thanks to injuries I received 12 years ago, and which I have been struggling with significantly ever since. These injuries are the reason I am a refugee as people see my symptoms and hold me to account for something I cannot be responsible for. Please then, bear with me as I simply do not have the social skills to navigate the finer points of conversation. If I seem rude, unusual, "weird", or whatever, those are my symptoms.

Thank you.

I am the proud owner of a Fibersteel laminated ferro-cement custom hull which I purchased in 2012 as an incomplete project from the second owner. The Disperser, as I call my ship, was fitted with the finest mast and rigging available at the time, given the power of a brand new Detroit Diesel 6-71, a new Kohler 12.5kW 1 phase generator (okay, so it wasn't perfect), and not much else. A galley was built, rather shoddily using particle board, a rough berth was thrown together with a head and built-in shower. Even the pilothouse was poorly made and must be replaced. I have a LOT of work to do.

I was the first to sail this ship, and have taken her farther than 2 of the 29 hulls made by Fibersteel (one of which I noticed was for sale in Australia).

The Disperser also happens to be my first boat/ship/sailing vessel.

I purchased The Disperser for the express purpose of escaping the hell that my life in the USA became as a result of my injuries. My intent was to seek asylum in a nation I felt would treat me better. But in case I could not find one, I wanted the opportunity to be self-sufficient and to be able to travel; which also accommodated my concerns about global, shall we say, "drama." As an unintended side effect however; my ship and the idea of becoming self-sufficient became the best possible therapy for my symptoms. I have since made significant progress, but still need some serious work; work which will be complete when I can finally organize my boat, as its present state of disorder and chaos ironically perfectly reflects my own mental state: disorganized, chaotic, and desperately in need of some serious efforts at organizing.

I purchased The Disperser with money attained from selling my dream car, a 1965 Sunbeam Tiger, and from the 10 years I spent pursuing my Social Security Disability case (I am of course from the USA.) which finally resulted in about $120,000US in backpay, about $45,000 of which was wasted on the medical industry trying to get the diagnosis and thus treatment I needed for my brain injury. Another $50,000 was stolen or otherwise taken from me in direct theft, illegal maneuvers (my ship was illegally evicted by Sonoma County who didn't appreciate me raising a stink about them killing my crewman and friend the same month they killed a 12 year old innocent child, Andy Garcia) and various other means. And the City of Morro Bay damaged my ship by striking it hard at a portlight in maneuvering me off their pier where I had been ordered before leaving the harbor, and has since used legal maneuvers to welch on the $25,000 in damage they did.

And, as if it weren't enough, I was held prisoner, robbed, and used as slave labor by a supposedly upstanding businessman in San Diego to whom I had previously donated $40,000 of my programming time and efforts on his project, the first diesel-electric hybrid car; which left me without much of my clothing, a high end catamaran I intended to dismantle and take with me to Mexico, and most importantly, without the money I needed to complete my vessel.

It is very important to understand I do not seek direct or financial assistance. I am self-sufficient. But a self-sufficient man, even one as intelligent and otherwise capable as myself, cannot do a thing if he is constantly being robbed of his resources, tools, and means of support and being taken advantage of and mistreated by everyone around him.

What I am asking for is very basic: information. I seek a location in the southern Pacific ocean, anywhere from Ecuador to New Zealand (likely excluding New Zealand as a I am refugee from the USA and its oppressive surveilance and law enforcement efforts - see Kim Dot Com for an example of my fears).

The ideal situation for me would be a facility in need of an engineer, manager, and all around handyman to bring it back into shape. I am highly motivated by necessity, and need desperately to haul my ship out of the water and do extensive work, the kind of work no one has ever done on a hull (i.e. running hot hydrogen through the armature to re-reduce the oxidation back into steel).

I can likely work with any facility that isn't corporate-run and strictly about profit in the short term. But I need to be in a place free of the US government and its influence, and ideally as gringo-free as possible as I simply do not get along with other Americans.

The facility must also be in the southern hemisphere, ideally south of 25deg or where there is otherwise dry weather at least most of the year, as I have a genetic condition which makes black mold quite dangerous to me - indeed, it was black mold which created the conditions which led to the fire in the first place.

As I indicated above, the ideal facility would be one that I can contribute to. And, while my hull is laminated ferro-cement, rather than simple ferro-cement, I do have a number of ideas and experiments I seek to conduct, including working with a provider whose material I am already using: DP-36, a polycarbonate polymer that displaces everything in a cement matrix but the cement and creates a vapor-proof final product, one I have already tested successfully in excluding, permanently, black mold from growing on the hull. The same company, Pro Seal, makes a line of products for cement, including a rubberizer which impregnates and bonds a protective rubber coating to cement, a potentially ideal bottom coating from my perspective. I hope to work with the company or its technology in order to create a silicone coating.

I should also note that I hope to salvage boats, especially wood hulls, in order to find materials for construction of a proper interior. I have already set up a high capacity gantry crane on my stern deck capable of lifting at least a ton and moving objects as large as my jetski or slightly larger onto deck, have a trash pump, and plan to make lift bags. I am already equipped with basic diving equipment and have taught myself the basics (and do not exceed 10m depth as I simply am not sufficiently knowledgeable to do so and generally avoid trying to kill myself.)

I did have salvage rights to a 50 foot mahogeny schooner, rights acquired when I purchased a Westsail32 intended to give to a Mexican in return for his help with my vessel, but the deal fell apart when the sailboat was stolen and sold (I am still waiting for the title from California 8 months later) and I was unable to get my vessel to the site of the wreck (in a port) to harvest the materials.

I am hoping to find something quite soon, as my time in Mexico must come to an end as I was denied access to the asylum/refuge application process.

Other things I am looking for include someone to assist me in creating a crowdfunding platform as a possible answer to my difficulties, suitable companionship which I am searching for on my own, and any assistance that might be available in intervening on my behalf in the asylum/refuge process here in Mexico. But these are not my primary focus here. My hope is to find information, that is all. The sailing community I have been exposed to thus far has not proven very helpful to me, and in fact have made things much more difficult (I am denied access to the radio net and message boards here in La Paz.) So I no longer ask the community for anything other than information. So please do not think I am here begging. I am not by any means. Nor do I judge anyone here based on my experiences, which has been almost exclusively with Americans in the "latitude 38 crowd."

In the meantime, I will try to contribute here as much as possible on topics I am well versed and confident in. I am also going to try to post my procedure for the repair of cracks and similar damage to laminated ferro-cement hulls which I developed as an answer to my own need due to the cracks created by Morro Bay.

Finally, while I am not very experienced, I am nevertheless extremely competent. I have, without any assistance whatsoever, purchased my ship, made her basically seaworthy, learned to sail it (on a Cal 2-24 acquired for free four months after acquiring The Disperser), broke it in in the most spectacular fashion after being caught in a gale that was predicted by NOAA to be a "small craft advisory" and freak breaking 10-12 foot waves with a single green crewman, and then sailed it, with mostly uncooperative and mutinous crew to La Paz, BCS, Mexico from the oxbow marina in Stockton, California where I purchased her.

In the two years I have been in Mexico I have managed to upgrade my temporary jibsheet hardware, replace the PVC pipe stantions with galvanized tubing that extends above the deck aft of the foremast to provide attachment for shade cloth (I acquired 300meters of weathered 1 1/16th inch diameter galvanized tubing for $4000MX, about $250USD and learned to cut and weld it), and made many other minor improvements and repairs.

I am making progress, but since the Mexican government has made it quite clear that I am not wanted here, I am halting all work in favor of making preparations to voyage south...somewhere.

Thank you for your time and especially your patience.

I have attached a recent photograph of The Disperser. It does not show the completed railing as I have since finished it on the bowsprit and installed the gantry crane on the stern deck. It does show some of my tools on the foredeck including my plywood tablesaw, cutoff bandsaw, drill press, bench grinder, and wirefeed welder (beautiful little machine, a Millermatic 130xp that does steel, galvanized (beautifully!), and even stainless and aluminum, all on 120VAC!.

I have started a GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign. I'm not asking anyone here to donate, but I'd be very grateful if you could share the campaign. I have no network of friends or family, I don't even use Facebook (who apparently owns GoFundMe) or Twitter.

Crowdfunding relies on networking. If I could network, I wouldn't need to raise funds.

My life is like this all the time - if I could do the things I can't do, I wouldn't need help. But the things I can't do all have to do with finding the help I need. So I need help to find help...

I dearly wish anyone could even just imagine what it's like for me to be in this situation.

Anyway, the campaign is at gofundme.com/my-dream-of-freedom-was-stolen/

Pitcairn island are looking for new residents with engineering abilities, due to the dwindling population they are offering strong incentives to move there and they will definitely give you free land and may well even give you a free house. You could sail there but I strongly recommend you don't attempt it in that yacht! On arrival you'll discover there is no harbour and not even a safe anchorage on the island, but that suits them, they like being isolated.

I've been to Pitcairn and on the whole it's a beautiful, clean, isolated place where eccentrics are welcomed. 4 supply ships a year a couple of dozen yachts are the only visitors. The island has lots of technical infrastructure like generators, machinery, boats, satellite internet and a complete mains electricity network which needs someone to maintain it as the guy who built it is retiring and nobody else in the population of about 40 people can manage it.

I think Pitcairn might be the perfect place for you but that yacht of yours is a liability, I'd sell it or give it away before you go!